Road Trip: Day Three

First my daily/race report:

This morning was the ESRI/UC 5K at 6:45 am. Yeah, it was early but there's a conference to get going and people need to shower and get back to listen to speakers and things. The race was along the Embarcadero in San Diego around the two arms of park that hug the marina behind the hotel and there were about 250 people there.

I started way too fast. I could tell a minute in that I was going too fast in trying to keep up with the people around me, so I fell back a little to try and find my pace. I think this is the hardest part of a race... finding your own pace. Even then, I think I made it harder on myself by listening to a new playlist - so I'm not used to the music or how to pace myself to it. I passed the 1 mile marker just after the 11 minute mark. I figured I needed to catch my breath a little and walked for a minute and then began running again.

This time it was a little easier to find my pace. I was between packs of runners, so I could just run the way I do. As I passed the start/finish line (which is in the middle of the course as the course was a giant loop), Mr. Bear was there with his coffee yelling "Woo Hoo!" That made me feel a lot better and I kept going. At the two mile mark, I was still going fast (23 minutes) and let myself walk a recovery minute before running once more.

I almost missed the final loop after the turn around. Fortunately someone called out to me to let me know about it (I guess a few people missed the loop), so I didn't lose any time as a result. As I was coming up on the finish line, I realized I was the "there is no way I'm letting that chick beat me" person for three people who sprinted past me - which was fine with me. I knew I set a PR (38:26) and Mr. Bear was there cheering for me.

I felt good - sweaty, but good.

Trip Report:

Yesterday I went to the zoo where I can honestly say that the baby panda gives the west coast pandas the edge over the east coast pandas BUT, to be fair, I should go to DC and check out the east coast pandas in the near future to be sure.

The zoo is HUGE! I spent close to 8 hours there and I know I missed the reptile house and one of the trails.

OK - here's the funny part. Monday there were these Japanese sailors who had rented a bike pram and were riding around the convention center. One of them kept yelling out, "Hello" to people and I said "Hello" back - it was funny. Monday night we went to a little fish shack for dinner and the sailors were in front of us in line.

So here I am at the zoo sitting down to eat after seeing the pandas and who sits down at the next table? You guessed it, the Japanese sailors. I said, "Are you following me?" He clearly didn't speak English and I said, "Yesterday, bicycle."

He got excited, "Yes, yes. Yesterday bike" while pantomiming riding the bike.

I said, "Last night fish?"

"Yes, yes. Fish and water."

"Today Zoo?"

"Yes, yes. Today Zoo."

I don't know, it was just funny.

I would see them every so often while I wandered through the zoo. There was a whole bunch of them, not just the three I saw on Monday.

The bears were fun, but then I like bears. The Koalas are adorable (yes, I know that Koalas aren't bears, they're marsupials but I still count them as bears) - just hanging in the tree getting stoned on eucalyptus. The tiger and I had a staring contest (he looked away first, so I win) and the hippo cracked me up when he kept farting under water. Mr. Bear and I are going to go to the Wild Animal Park on Friday

Right now I'm debating between Sea World and swimming with sharks. I think I might go to Sea World today - I'm not up for another all day adventure and I'd like to rest before I'm kayaking around La Jolla and snorkeling with the leopard sharks.

Off to find food - damn all that running made me hungry!